1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of forming single crystal silicon spheres of semiconductor grade from particles of metallurgical grade silicon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the production of semiconductor devices such as solar cells, integrated circuits, transistors and the like, a basic material utilized is silicon of very high purity. Silicon of the purity required in the production of such devices is not readily available naturally and must be produced commercially.
It has therefore been necessary to purify the metallurgical grades of silicon in any one of many standard and well known manners. A problem is that semiconductor grade silicon, due to the costly processing techniques required for purification, is extremely expensive. It is therefore the desire in the art to provide elemental silicon of semiconductor grade which can be produced from the available natural sources of silicon more inexpensively than can be obtained by presently known techniques.